The Big Ride Archives - Robert Hartshorn Portraits & Fine Art

March 14, 2014September 26, 2014

Against the Dying of the Light

T’was the day of the show:

When all through the gallery, not a creature stirred, (not even Molly!)

The paintings were hung on the wall with care

In hopes that this evening people would come and stare

The brushes and paints were neatly in bed

As “lights, camera, action!” ran through our head!

The floors were mopped and clean,

Everything sang with a beautiful sheen!

The music low and the wine glasses full

colors, aromas, poetry to the brimful

And Rob in his suite jacket, and me in my lace,

We surveyed the room, standing in one place.

The show is ready we cheered!

So come to Tremont Artwalk and see who’s premiered!

TONIGHT, during the Tremont Artwalk, Lila Rose Kole’s first solo show, “Against the Dying of the Light”, showcasing selected abstract pieces from her new collection.

2343 Professor Avenue, Tremont, Cleveland, OH

“Against the Dying of the Light” Event Page || LILA ROSE KOLE’s Page || Hartshorn Studios

January 30, 2014September 24, 2014

A Mission Statement

Inspiration can come from the most unlikely sources.

Lila was after me about creating a “mission statement” for Hartshorn Studios and I was avoiding it because it felt like old business school blah blah.

Then I was drifting through an anthology of Edgar Allan Poe’s works and came upon this description of Poe’ philosophy….and I was transfixed….here were the words that spoke not only to me, but for me. And suddenly mission statements made sense:

Note: interchange “art” and “artist” for “poetry” and “poet”.

“The poet’s right – in fact, his duty – is to dream, to provide a place, a habitat, for the goddesses, the dryads, the naiads, the Elfin, and thereby conduct the reader to a realm of Beauty. To present Beauty for its own sake, without other justification. To take us to a sphere of loveliness. For Poe, this was, one might say, a religion: he felt that there is a realm of being beyond the worldly domain in which we prosaically live: and that poetry is the means by which we can momentarily reach it. It is through the poem, or through the music that eternity could be glimpsed”. Wilber S. Scott on Edgar Allan Poe

May 31, 2010September 24, 2014

California, Here I Come

This is my first post…days before I fly off to California to join my four brothers (Peter, Bruce, Ted and Mac) on a grueling 545 mile, 7 day trek from SF to LA as part of the annual AIDS/Lifecycle event.

I took the day off from training because it was supposed to thunderstorm..but it hasn’t yet. I could have been back by now, but once I said no to the ride I didn’t have the willpower to change my mind. Attitude is everything. For the past week I’ve felt sluggish before and after my 2 to 3 hr (30 to 50 mile) training, but as soon as I decided to forego the ride today, I found a burst of physical and mental energy.

Or was it the coffee this morning? For the last 4 months I’ve cut back stimulants because they compromise nutrition absorption, so when I do succumb…big energy.

But I’d also felt a twinge of rawness from my seat that I hadn’t experienced in a month, and I wanted that to settle down for a day…but what happens when I have to ride 7 days with no rest for any of the minor issues that I worked through over 6 months: the fallen arches, then the bruised wrist when I fell and fell and fell again, then the stiff neck, then the upper back pain, then the right knee, then the achilles heel ( still there), then the right knee again, then the blurring contacts.

Sounds grim, but the reality is that overcoming each one in turn has made me stronger, and I’m proud of the way my 56 year old body has responded to being pushed. My objective is not to simply survive the hills but to enjoy the road and the time with my brothers….apositive end to a first post. Rob